Bug Chasers: The Men Who Want HIV
'It’s a Sin' actor Nathaniel Hall investigates the world of ‘bug chasing’, an extreme and controversial sexual fetish where people actively seek to contract HIV. The actor meets a 'chaser', a man who doesn’t take PrEP – a medication which prevents HIV from getting into the body – in his quest to contract the virus. He also interviews another man, a so-called ‘gifter’ with a detectable viral load, who is happy to transmit the virus to willing recipients. More than four decades since the first HIV diagnosis, the virus still has the potential to cause serious illness, so why do those within the ‘bug chasing’ community embrace it?
Storyline
'It’s a Sin' actor Nathaniel Hall investigates the world of ‘bug chasing’, an extreme and controversial sexual fetish where people actively seek to contract HIV. The actor meets a 'chaser', a man who doesn’t take PrEP – a medication which prevents HIV from getting into the body – in his quest to contract the virus. He also interviews another man, a so-called ‘gifter’ with a detectable viral load, who is happy to transmit the virus to willing recipients. More than four decades since the first HIV diagnosis, the virus still has the potential to cause serious illness, so why do those within the ‘bug chasing’ community embrace it?